


future looks good

by coffeecrowns



Category: The Penumbra Podcast
Genre: Alternate Universe - Groundhog Day (1993) Fusion, Getting Back Together, I tried to fix it but it took a bit, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, M/M, Post-Episode: e018 Juno Steel and the Final Resting Place, Suicide Attempt, Temporary Character Death, i promise this isn't as dark as it seems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-07
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-12-24 21:53:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12021777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coffeecrowns/pseuds/coffeecrowns
Summary: After the final resting place, Nureyev keeps waking up alone. So does a certain detective.





	future looks good

Peter wakes up. He can do it quickly again. Which is good. He’s losing any softness, and it’s that softness that kills people like him. It’s better this way. One breathe he’s asleep, and then next he’s awake with his lady’s name on his breath. Well. Maybe not _his._ He looks out the massive windows. Hyperion city looks as beautiful as it did when he first saw it, but, colder than he used to think. He’s alone. Again.

He woke up for the first time three days ago. It was three long days ago, where he doesn’t leave the room for more than a few minutes, with a camera set to alert him if anyone comes by. Sure, call him paranoid. But he doesn’t want to miss it if, well he doesn’t think Juno is coming back. It’s been three days. 

Well, he thinks it’s been three days. Except, he keeps waking up to the exact same day. He can’t leave today. It just happens over and over again. He can’t wake up any earlier to stop Juno. The light comes in the same way. The television plays the same shows, the radio the same sounds. The odd thumping comes from upstairs. His comms say the same date. He’s just stuck.

Here are three things he knows:

  1. He has a full 25 hours, before he falls asleep and wakes back up in this bed, in this stupidly nice penthouse (He wonders if the showy hotel scared Juno off).
  2. 25 hours means he cannot get off Mars (Juno, also, probably will not leave Mars).
  3. Juno Steel is not coming back for him.



He is a master thief, and he is trapped, and it is his own fucking fault. He fell in love and gave up his name and he’s paying for it. He doesn’t regret it. He almost hates that fact. But all he can think of is Juno, and how he looked in the moonlight and frankly, he was willing to stay on Mars for this disaster of a man.

 

So on the fourth day, he wakes up, writes a very short apology, and walks off the balcony. 

He doesn’t hit the ground. (Well, he doesn’t _think_ he hits the ground.) He wakes back up in bed, the cold bed, alone, to the same skyline. He’s one part relieved and three parts ready to go scream at someone. 

He gets dressed. Nothing flashy. Dark pants and light purple button up. A nice jacket, because Mars is a frozen red rock. It's got pockets Juno has almost definitely rooted through, and the thought doesn't make him feel any better. On a whim, he throws on a few necklaces that layer nicely. He catches his reflection and feels subdued. But also protected.

He takes a deep breath. This sucks. This sucks but it can only get better. 

He feels better (but he avoids his reflection just in case.)

 

He makes it to Juno’s office. Rita sits on a chair with her feet kicked up on the desk. An old earth telenovela is playing. Rita is enchanted. (It makes him feel better, to know that she’s still Rita. Maybe there is still room for him and Juno.) 

“Agent Glass!” exclaims Rita when she catches sight of him.

“Good morning, Rita,” he says, in a more polite version of Rex Glass’s approach.

“Oooh,” she says, “You’re looking for the boss!” She gives him a look and then a wink and then, for good measure, a nudge. He loves Rita. But he’s starting to get a headache. It’s some combination of the shades of pink and the decibel she feels appropriate.

“Why yes,” he says. “I am looking for Detective Steel.” He takes in the darkness beyond Rita’s little haven, and figures this isn’t where he is hiding.

She gives him yet another look. “You don’t need to be so formal Agent Glass, you can call him Juno.” Her glasses have little rhinestones on them. That’s what’s giving him the headache, the concentrated little bright lights.

“Juno, then,” he says, as lightly as he can. “Do you know where he is?” 

“Oh, boss came in about twenty minutes ago. But he just some old files and went home,” says Rita. Then she lowers her voice. “He didn’t look so good Agent Glass.”

“That’s what worries me,” he says. Then the commercials end, she turns to the tv, which means the shiny rhinestones are no longer causing him pain. So he takes his leave. Looks like he’s going to have to make a house call.

 

He goes to Juno’s crap apartment. He has an excellent memory, and barely focuses more than he has to. He doesn’t mind. He tries to plan what he wants to say. He has no idea.

Instead, he knocks on the door, Juno, who might actually be more alcohol than water, answers. He says, “Nureyev, what the shit?” then he hits the ground, hard.   

And he wakes up. Alone. And tries again. 

Juno, even more drunk, answers, “Seriously, you too?”

“Yes, Juno,” he says. It sounds endearing, even though is angry. Super angry.

“Shit,” says Juno. “Well, you know what they say, booze heals all hurts. 

“Time,” he corrects. “It’s time that heals.”

Juno looks him up and down, “We’ve got plenty of that too.”

 (They drink. They drink for hours. They lay half on top of each other. He feels sick, and then he feels better, and then he feels sick again. They aren’t talking, but he can feel Juno breathing under his leg??? And even that’s better. So he keeps drinking. They drink until Juno is crying and Nureyev throws up and Juno holds back his hair and kisses his forehead and then, it goes dark, and Nureyev wakes back up, alone, in the hotel room.)

 

On the seventh day, Juno meets him at the office. Rita coos. They’re both sober. Peter is never drinking again. Ever. Peter asks, “why did you leave this morning?”

Juno says, “Don’t ask me questions I can’t answer. This isn’t a game.” 

And that, that actually hurts. He knows Juno. He knows Juno has issues, and he knows how his moody detective gets when things are mean (cruel, bad, soul-crushing) in his head. He’s forgiven Juno every morning he wakes up alone. He just wants to stop it from happening again. (Not just in the context of not being able to move past today.) 

But this is not a game. It’s never been a game. He loves, even if they aren’t good at it.

So he lets Juno walk away.

 

And he wakes up alone again.

Two full weeks, Juno walks into him, they stop, and Peter asks, “Why did you leave this morning?”

Two full weeks, Juno says something snappy, but not cutting. It’s not a game. Or at least, Juno isn’t trying to make it one. He says “It’s not your fault.” Like that’s somehow supposed to make him feel better.

Then he looks down and walks away. And Peter lets him. He doesn’t make a scene, he just waits until he’s sure that Juno is gone before he starts moving. He waits until he can no longer tell himself that any movement could be Juno coming back. He both loathes and loves his ability to compartmentalize. Sometimes it takes hours before the tears start falling. 

 

On the fifteenth day of asking. Juno changes the script. Which _is_ Peter’s fault, in a roundabout way. He’s waiting on the street, waiting for Juno to come. Juno is late. It’s a full hour and a half later than they usually do this. Peter no longer knows all the people who walk by. It’s new, and that in itself is unsettling. He will wait until the clock resets, if he has to, for Juno. But instead, he hears a commotion in a back alley. So he goes to investigate. It can’t hurt.

There’s a young person with a blaster. They have it pointed at another young person, who is shaking in fear. They mugger calmly explains how the other person is going to turn over all their possessions, _slowly_ . And that’s when Peter sees Juno standing on the other side of alley. And the young mugger _also_ sees Juno. 

“You!” shouts the mugger, in a deep voice. “What do you think you’re doing!?” 

“Nothing,” says, Juno calmly, “Just a lady out on a stroll.” 

“Prove it,” says the youth, closing the gap. 

Juno, Juno then punches the mugger. The mugger takes a shot. The second youth runs by Peter without a second thought. And, the moment that gets trapped in Peter’s mind is the one where Juno goes down. 

The mugger gets a knife to the femoral artery. Peter’s pretty sure he’ll have it back when he wakes up tomorrow. (It’s not like it’s a favourite knife, so he won’t mind.) 

“Juno, you idiot!” he yells as he kneels next to his love. The streets are filthy and he doesn’t care, not with the way Juno is crumpled on them.

His pretty lady turns his head, and smiles. There’s blood in his mouth. God, he has to keep Juno from looking down. “Good to see you, Peter.”

“Juno,” he begs, though he doesn’t know what for. “Don’t be like that.”

“Nureyev, then,” he says. “Ask your question.”

“Are you serious?” Peter responds. “This is how you want to go out?”

“Don’t ask it then,” says Juno. “But, I’m sorry. It was stupid of me.”

“I’m used to that, love,” says Peter. It’s so much later then they are normally out, and they sky has taken on a pink colour that he knows Juno loves. But Juno isn’t looking at the sky.

And Juno smiles up at him, and says, “We can talk about it tomorrow, I’m not done with you yet,” and then he dies in Peter’s arms. Peter can feel his heart stop, his last breathe release. He can feel his tears well up, but they don’t even get a chance to fall before he can feel his own eyes closing.

 

Peter wakes up, alone. Again. He can feel something painful inside of him. It’s not unlike a broken rib. And he just cries. It’s like all his tears built up, and now he can’t seem to get rid of them fast enough. But then he remembers that he’s awake. He’s awake and alive, and it’s still the same day. He gets dressed. He runs to Juno’s apartment.

Juno opens the door before he can knock. He starts talking before Peter can ask. 

“I love you. It makes us both fools. But I don’t know what I’m doing.” 

“For fucks sake Juno, I don’t either,” he says, before he really registers the words. Then, before he realizes what he’s saying, “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?”

“I refuse to deal with my depression?” says Juno, almost like it’s a question, but looking down. “And it tried to ruin my life?”

 “Well, it’s certainly good to hear you say it.”

 “I know it doesn’t fix anything. I’m not stupid,” continues Juno, after a deep breath. “And, neither are you. I trust you, which is new.” He looks up to make eye contact. “But I like it. I’m not going to always get it right. But I’m going to try.”

“Juno, I, I don’t know what to say,” he says. Juno smiles, that beautiful smile, and lifts himself on his toes and kisses Peter.

“That works,” says Peter, when they come up for air. When he looks in Juno’s eyes, it’s like falling in love all over again. So they’ll make it work.

 

The next morning, Peter wakes up without any clothes on, a petulant detective imitating a octopus, in a crap apartment. He wakes up home.

“I love you,” he says, to the sleeping figure. He debates trying to see if Juno has any food around, if he would be impressed by crepes, and a thousand other little details. Juno, in response, latches on tighter.

“Alright,” he says, to his love, already excited by the chance to wake up together. He likes the look of tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first penumbra podcast fic, and well, I did my best. I'd apologize but I'm not that sorry. 
> 
> Also, this file was called "final resting place can suck it" because we all had that reaction right??
> 
> Let me know what you thought!


End file.
